Zach Behrens

When it comes to in-state gubernatorial campaign donations, where's the money coming from? USC's Neon Tommy looked into that and found that for the first half of 2010, Attorney General Jerry Brown saw a majority -- 45% -- of donations come from individuals, businesses and groups located in Oakland, where he served as mayor from 1999 to 2007.

One poll says they're tied, another say the Republicans will win and this one indicates the Democrats are gaining momentum. The latest news comes via the LA Times/USC poll that was released this weekend. Attorney General, a former California governor, Jerry Brown has a five-point lead over former eBay CEO Meg Whitman -- 49%to 44% -- among likely voters, the poll found.

Photo by Xanetia via Flickr Triple digit temperatures are, unfortunately, nothing unusual across the Southland today. In fact, many areas are experiencing 110 or higher. As usual when weather gets this intense, Los Angeles encourages people to use cooling centers if they need to. In an e-mail to the public, the Emergency Management Department lists a number of options, including Senior Centers, Recreation and Parks facilities and libraries. Wait. Libraries? Those buildings that are...

More than 75 firefighters are fighting a 2 or so-acre blaze in Thousand Oaks this hot, hot, hot afternoon. First reported around 2:12 p.m., the fire is burning light to medium brush on a hillside across the 101 Freeway from the Performing Arts Center and city hall, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. Two helicopters and dozers have been deployed. Updated: Acreage has been upped to fifteen acres....

Photo by JZphotos via LAist Featured Photos on Flickr In Los Angeles, you can only own one rooster per property, but in this cash-strapped city, who is going to make it a priority and enforce that? When the rooster law was written last year, the only department given authority to write citations was the Department of Animal Services. Yes, that's one of the numerous departments earlier this year that suffered furloughs and job cuts,...

Megan Geckler's "Set a Course for Wayward Schemes" at BGFA at 5th/Main in 2008 | Photo by Tom Andrews/LAist What a whirlwind of events! On Friday it was announced that the Downtown Art Walk was temporarily canceled, only to return in January as a weekend-long quarterly event. That sure sparked a lot of disappointment and controversy among fans of the event. Apparently, it was also controversial within the organization that runs the event. On...

Four neighborhoods this month became the first within Los Angeles city limits to become home for AOL's hyper-local initiative called Patch, which are those community news sites that have been popping this year in surrounding cities like West Hollywood, Calabasas and Redondo Beach. What's unique about them is that they each carry full time editors, mostly all with a degree or background in journalism (or example, check out the above video featuring Chatsworth's Saul...

I've been a vegetarian for around 15 years and will say this about Los Angeles: this is one hell of a veggie friendly city, perhaps the most friendly in the states. Since it's Hug a Vegetarian Day (sweet!), these are my picks, based on the vegetarian-only places I desire the most (actually, six of these are vegan). It's Valley-focused, but this is where some of the best kept secrets can be found. Here's my list,...

End of the day links: Lindsay Lohan, state executions, the Ray Charles Memorial Library, food trucks in Santa Monica, homelessness in Venice, hot dogs in downtown, a grilled cheese restaurant and more.

The recession arrived and like with many other government agencies, budgets dwindled. For Metro, which is currently facing a $250-million budget shortfall for bus and rail operations, its board yesterday voted to make a nearly 4% cut in bus service, according to the LA Times. That move to cancel a dozen or lines and (.pdf) modify another others -- changes will occur in December -- will save the agency an estimated $30 million every...